On this first day of the new electricity rates imposed by Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli on Ontario consumers, it is appropriate to quote PC Energy Critic Lisa MacLeod from yesterday at Queen’s Park:
“In the few seconds I have left, let me talk about North Gower. They’re a community that is living this hydro nightmare because they are going to be forced to deal with these wind turbines. They’re not a willing host, and they know that their neighbours down the road in Bells Corners…struggling to stay in business are going to have to pay for high hydro hikes as a result of the government’s disastrous green energy policy. That is, I think, a perfect example of the Green Energy Act assaulting rural communities, and just 15 minutes down the road, businesses going out of business. I couldn’t make that point more clearly.”
First posted: Wednesday, October 30, 2013 06:03 PM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, October 30, 2013 06:19 PM EDT
Wind turbines at the Erie Shores Wind Farm near Port Burwell generate power. Similar turbines may be popping up near Ottawa. (CRAIG GLOVER/QMI AGENCY)
For years, Gary Thomas has run a successful 50-acre Christmas tree farm in North Gower.
And he does it right, a family event with horse-drawn sleighs, tractor-drawn wagons and a warm fire with hot chocolate and cookies waiting for you upon your return from the bush.
Don’t forget the sweet smells of fresh Scotch Pine and Balsam fir.
Idyllic? Absolutely.
Now picture the same Norman Rockwell scene with a 600-foot high wind turbine less than 1 km away.
Sort of jars the senses, doesn’t it?
And then picture the massive turbine casting a shadow over the scene every few seconds.
Thomas says he can barely believe the possibility.
But indeed, there continues to be a looming threat of a wind turbine project as his next-door-neighbour.
A company called Prowind has applied more than once to the province for permission to build the wind turbine project in North Gower.
And when the province opens up for bids again, there’s every expectation Prowind will submit a proposal again.
“We’re not very pleased with it for a number of reasons. Health, there’s the psychological aspect, and the flicker effect, with every few second have a shadow come in front of our house, this is crazy,
“I’m not sure customers having the old fashioned experience will like the shadow,” he said.
Agreed.
Thomas doesn’t just worry about the immediate effects of the turbines, but he and his wife have counted on the farm for their retirement — and if the giant wind turbines are erected, doesn’t know how that will effect the resale value of their home.
“We’re hopeful Watson and council won’t put them in the municipality,” he says, in an interview with the Sun on Wednesday.
The threat of a giant wind turbine farm in their community has galvanized residents of North Gower in opposition of the project.
“We really don’t need these wind power projects,” said Jane Wilson, the chair of Ottawa Wind Concerns.
The group is circulating a petition — which now has about 400 names on it — advising the province North Gower doesn’t want to be home to a wind turbine project.
“It’s a pretty big power plant, I’m not sure people understand that. It’s huge, these are really large machines, they make noise and the vibrations can be upsetting,” she said.
The group has the support of their ward councillor Scott Moffatt, who’s working with them and city staff to craft a motion asking the province to give municipalities a say in where the wind power projects can and can’t be located.
“The majority are against it,” he added.
……………..
Read more at the Ottawa Sun website and take the poll!
Thanks to talented and dedicated volunteers we now have an online poll which will gather opinions from voters in the City of Ottawa, which we can take to Council along with our petition.
Nearly 300 people came to the recreation centre in North Gower Saturday morning to oppose construction of eight to 10 wind turbines north and west of the village.
NORTH GOWER — Nearly 300 people came to the recreation centre in North Gower Saturday morning to oppose construction of eight to 10 wind turbines north and west of the village.
“They’re too noisy. They are really way to close to people for an industrial power plant,” said organizer Jane Wilson, of Ottawa Wind Concerns. “Far too close to too many people.”
She estimates that 1,100 homes would be within 3.5 kilometres of the turbines.
“A number of the homes are within two kilometres, which is … where you see most of the health effects,” she said.
Her group circulated a map of where it says the turbines would be sited, “and when people start looking at the map and see how close it is, it really makes a difference to them.”
Opponents of wind farms say sound waves that are at too low a frequency for the human ear to hear can cause insomnia, dizziness, headaches and other health problems. The industry says there is no health impact.
Construction could begin in the fall of 2014, she believes.
The proposal by Prowind Canada is on hold for now, but residents expect the company to go ahead eventually. The Prowind website estimates the size of what it calls the Marlborough wind farm at eight turbines, producing up to 20 megawatts.
Nepean-Carleton MPP Lisa MacLeod, who is also the Conservative energy critic, attended the event to support the protest.
“Rural communities are going to be assaulted by these wind turbine developments,” she said.
She said the Conservatives want a moratorium on new wind developments, and an end to subsidies “so that we can put them put of business.”
She also accused the turbines of being costly and inefficient.
Wind farms are common in many parts of Ontario, especially along the Great Lakes, but are not yet common in Eastern Ontario. In some rural communities they have pitted neighbours against each other, with some welcoming the revenue and some saying their health and property values are at stake.
“There are obviously some health issues that need to be explored and Health Canada is doing that right now,” MacLeod said.
Wilson said the Saturday rally collected 282 signatures declaring that North Gower is “not a willing host” to a wind farm.
Nepean-Carleton MP Pierre Poilievre announced on Twitter that the social costs of wind farms are too high and added, “I will continue to stand with you.”
Parker Gallant on Ontario’s Energy Ministry: aiding the fortunes of…Quebec
No, no, don’t confuse me with the facts!
Endorsing fallacies, avoiding realities—Ontario’s Ministry of Energy
Global Adjustment charge jumps from $800 million to $6.5 billion in four years
Watch out Ontario, Quebec is targeting our industry! That’s the message one gets from the announcement by Premier Pauline Marois that Quebec will use Hydro Quebec’s surplus power to attract job-creating industries to Quebec. An article in the October 8, 2013 edition of the Financial Post states Hydro Quebec will set aside 50 terawatt (TWh) hours for that purpose. To put that in perspective, 50 TWh represents 35% of Ontario’s total power demand (141.3 TWh) in 2012, or enough to power five million average Ontario households.
So what is Ontario doing to stave off this aggressive push from Quebec? Well, since being named Premier, Kathleen Wynne has overseen the Ministry of Natural Resources issue renewable energy approvals for about 811 megawatts (MW) of industrial-scale wind power. Three of those, including a Samsung contract (Armow Wind for 180 MW), occurred in just the last two weeks! Her government also announced October 10, 2013 that they will scrap the plan to build 2,000 MW of new nuclear. That 2,000 MW was part of the Long-Term Energy Plan issued by Brad Duguid in late 2010 when he was Energy Minister.
Here is what Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli had to say about abandoning the new nuclear build: “We’re in a comfortable (electricity generation) surplus position at this time and it’s not advisable to make the major investments in new nuclear. Some time in the future we might be looking at it.”
To put that into perspective, it would take approximately 7,000 MW of industrial wind turbines to produce the equivalent power of the proposed 2,000 MW of nuclear. That 7,000 MW would entail the erection of almost 3,500 turbines spread throughout the province, producing power at 29% of their rated capacity. That same 7,000 MW of wind would produce power 80% of the time when we don’t need it—the middle of the night, during the spring freshet, and in the fall when our demand for power is the lowest. And, when we don’t need the power we will often pay the wind companies to not produce power. We will also require other power sources to back up those turbines (now expensive gas plants, two of which were moved at a cost of over $1 billion ) so Ontario ratepayers will pay twice for any power we may need.
So what will this cost us?
A report from the Ontario Power Authority (that no longer appears on their website) pegged the Global Adjustment Mechanism (GAM) for the 12 months ended January 31, 2009 at $800 million. Fast forward just four years to January 31, 2013 and the total GAM had jumped to $6.5 billion for the comparable 12 months. The GAM looks sure to hit the $8 billion mark by the end of January 2014. That GAM pot principally reflects renewable energy costs along with money spent on getting Ontarians to conserve.
Looking at what the cost of 2,000 MW of new nuclear might be to the Ontario ratepayers and using the original estimate of $26 billion, you get a capital cost of $43.4 million per TWh (assuming a 40-year lifespan). That includes a fuel cost of 6.3 million per TWh. For those who like to equate that to a kilowatt hour (kWh) the cost (without Operations, Maintenance and Administration [OMA]) would be 4.43 cents per kWh and 8.3 cents per kWh when OMA is included both less than recently announced average (8.88 cents) time-of-use (TOU) prices set for the next six months.
Now compare that to the cost of a TWh from wind turbines and assume they will produce at 29% of their rated capacity. At 11.5 cents per kWh the cost to produce the same power jumps to $115 million per TWh (plus another 20% cost of living increases) without adding in the costs of back-up power from gas turbines, the spilling of clean hydro or “steaming off” nuclear power from Bruce. The back-up alone adds over $80 million per TWh bringing the cost per kWh to 20 cents.
So how do Ontario’s electricity rates for large industrial customers compare with Quebec? According to Hydro Quebec energy costs in Montreal at $100 would cost $223 in Toronto and $90 in Winnipeg.
It may be time for Premier Wynne and Minister Chiarelli to do a reality check. Why didn’t they simply announce that Ontario doesn’t need more electricity production from wind, solar and nuclear “due to our comfortable surplus position” instead of the fallacy that we need more wind?
We certainly don’t need electricity generation that will complete the process of making Ontario the most expensive place to operate energy intensive industry in all of North America. Stop the spin, stop the fallacy that wind can replace nuclear!
In a letter published in The Ottawa Citizen today (but not available online) Wind Concerns Ontario vice-president Parker Gallant writes:
Ottawa Citizen, October 18, 2013
Peddling empty promises
RE: Angry Ontarians talk turkey with Wynne over $1B gas plant bill, Oct. 10
On the same day that Ontario’s new Auditor General, Bonnie Lysyk, released her report on the Oakville gas plant cancellation, Ontario’s Minister of Energy Bob Chiarelli tried to deflect the bad news in a news release headlined “Ontario Improving Decision-Making on Large Energy Projects.” In it was a link to 18 recommendations by the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) and the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO).
The recommendations were fluff. Words like “outreach,” “understand,” and “enhance,” were used but nowhere was any mention of returning local planning to the communities where these large power projects are to be sited.
Minister Chiarelli declared that “We want to get these decisions right … we are committed to ensuring communities have their say right from the start.”
Sending out a news release dealing with siting power projects on the same day that the Auditor General disclosed that the cost of moving the Oakville gas plant cost the ratepayers and taxpayers of the province $675 million, is not just an admission that they got the siting process horribly wrong, it pretends it is being fixed.
The truth is, the Ministry of Energy remains firmly in charge and will decide what it wants. To tell Ontario communities that they will “have their say from the start” is insulting. In just four days in early October, approvals for three more huge wind power generation projects were announced, the largest with a capacity of 180 MW. All these were without community consultation.
Mr Chiarelli is peddling more empty promises to detract from the mess that the Ontario Liberals have made of what used to be a competitive electricity sector.
When Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne held her first interviews after being elected the Ontario Liberal Party leader, and thus, Premier, she was asked about the controversy over wind power projects in Ontario. She said, her government would not be forcing the power projects on communities that were not “willing hosts.”
Today, 72 Ontario municipalities have declared themselves to be “Not a Willing Host” ( see windconcernsontario.ca Not a Willing Host tab for the list of communities).
North Gower is not a legal municipality since amalgamation with the City of Ottawa, but residents plan to be declared Not a Willing Host by using a legal petition to the City of Ottawa.
“This petition is a legal document, signed and witnessed by members of our community,” says Ottawa Wind Concerns chair Jane Wilson. “We will take this petition to the City of Ottawa and make sure the City overall knows that there is no support here for a wind power generation utility so close to homes, and our school.”
Wilson notes that Ontario often has a surplus of power and has sold excess for a loss to neighbouring jurisdictions such as Michigan or New York State, and that the Ontario government recently announced it is paying wind power companies NOT to add power to the grid. “So why build another one?” she asks. “Why subject yet another Ontario community to the dramatic impact of a wind power project it it’s not even needed?”
The proposed 20-megawatt wind power project will be within 3.5 km of more than 1,000 homes, Wilson explained. A conservative estimate of the average property value loss is over $130 million.
MPP Lisa MacLeod, now energy critic for the opposition has often spoken against the wind power project; MP Pierre Poilievre has said it makes no sense financially, and commissioned a Library of Parliament study to show that subsidies for the project from Ontario taxpayers would be about $4.8 million per year.
The petition-signing debut for North Gower residents is Saturday October 26th at 10 a.m. at the Alfred Taylor Centre on Community Way. Special guest Parker Gallant, frequent contributor to the Financial Post series “Ontario’s Power Trip,” will deliver a presentation “What’s in your electricity bill?” by videolink at the event.
Residents who are unable to attend will be able to sign the petition when volunteer canvassers come to their door, or on a special “voting day” at the Alfred Taylor Centre on Saturday November 9 from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.
For more information, email Ottawa Wind Concerns at ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com
From the October edition of The AgriNews, an update on the South branch wind power project. You recall that Prowind, the same developer as for the Marlborough project in North Gower, began this project by leasing land from local farm owners, and then sold it to Portuguese energy giant EDP. Construction is ongoing now.
Here is an excerpt of the story by Lois Ann Baker.
BRINSTON–Now that the wet weather is out of the way, construction on the South Branch Wind Farm* is well underway. The sites of the 10 turbines that will be scattered throughout the Brinston area have been excavated and access roads have been created to allow the many trucks and equipment to access the sites.
Within the next week or two the foundations for the turbines will be poured, paving the way for installation of the turbines.
The main site located on Brinston Road just south of the hamlet, will also be home to the substation that will be used to maintain the turbines. A building consisting of meeting rooms and storage space will also be located on that site.
Project manager Ken Little said … the turbines [will] be installed in November and they should be producing power for Hydro One by the new year.
The controversial wind farm has sparked interest among the locals, said Little and EDP Renewables has tried to keep up “fairly regular communication” with both supporters of the project and those that oppose the turbines.
Ralph Butler of Williamsburg expressed his concerns over the wind farm by saying that the area of farm land being wasted is unbelievable.
“I think it’s the biggest waste of money since the gas plant,” said Butler. “I’ve been complaining about this ever since it started.”
Butler added that with new regulations brought in by the Ontario government stopping the turbines from producing power when there is an abundance of power on the grid, it’s possible these turbines will never turn a blade to produce power. He also added that the municipal government should have done something to stop the project.
[EDP’s] Little didn’t seem overly concerned with the regulations saying that…they will be compensated. “If we are asked to shut them down, after a certain amount of time we will be paid,” said Little.
In light of these new regulations, South Dundas council passed a resolution at the first regular council meeting held after the groundbreaking of the turbine sites to not support any future proposals until the supply and demand for electricity demonstrates a need. Council had previously turned down a resolution by Councillor Evonne Delagarde requesting that the municipality become known as “Not a Willing Host” to industrial wind turbines.
At the same council meeting, council felt the need to defend themselves when long-time Brinston resident Robbie Giles gave a presentation on how he felt council had no been open and acted in the best interests of residents of South Dundas, with regards to the South Branch project. Giles claimed too many informal meetings with a lack of follow-up was a big issue.
Giles said he felt the biggest lesson learned from the South Branch project was that revealed a lack of public contact or consultation and urged council to take responsibility for “access, transparency, honesty, respect for all voices, and courage to change position and challenge authority, if it is the right thing to do.”
Mayor Steven Byvelds** responded with “I think we are an open council. We do not have informal meetings and do not discuss council issues away from the council table.” ***
*They are not “farms”
**Remember that name, especially in the next municipal election, October 2014
***Because that would be ILLEGAL under the Municipal Act, wouldn’t it?
Aerial photo of South Branch wind power plant by Ralph Butler
With new research on both health impacts and property value loss surfacing, we decided to update our maps on the sphere of influence of the proposed wind power generation project in North Gower and Richmond.
It is staggering. With health problems due to the environmental noise being reported as far away as 5 km in other jurisdictions (10 km reported in Australia) and property value loss substantial within 2 miles (US study from Clarkson University), our map depicts the influence on residents living within 3.5 km.
And what can you do? Tell the City of Ottawa that the residents of the North Gower area are NOT a “willing host” to this wind power project.
Come sign the legal petition Saturday October 26th at 10 AM at the Alfred Taylor Centre, and help get the word out to your North Gower friends and neighbours.
Alternate signing day will be Saturday November 9th from 11 AM to 1 PM. Volunteers will also be going door-to-door in the weeks after the petition launch; you may also email us at ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com to have a copy brought to you.
Each signature will be witnessed: this is a LEGAL DOCUMENT that will go to Ottawa City Council.
Donations welcome: PO Box 3, North Gower ON K0A 2T0
“In the few seconds I have left, let me talk about North Gower. They’re a community that is living this hydro nightmare because they are going to be forced to deal with these wind turbines. They’re not a willing host, and they know that their neighbours down the road in Bells Corners…struggling to stay in business are going to have to pay for high hydro hikes as a result of the government’s disastrous green energy policy. That is, I think, a perfect example of the Green Energy Act assaulting rural communities, and just 15 minutes down the road, businesses going out of business. I couldn’t make that point more clearly.”
Ottawa Wind Concerns 